JP On Gaming

Wednesday, May 31, 2017

More for Nashcon... This time two units of Aztec Jaguar Knights. They have similar colors, except for the leaders who have unique colors. They are easily differentiated tho using the square vs circular bases.

I used a little creative license with these guys, particularly with the shields... I used a variety of shields for them and kept the design simple on purpose as I really wanted the bright colors of their cotton outfits to shine.

Sunday, May 28, 2017

this is actually pretty cool news, JD (the mad man behind Rhym) has started a blog dedicated to all things Rhym. His blog will have inspiration, notes, stories, and fiction about Rhym. He has a good story about how much of a jerk I was to him...

Just a few quick words on Gencon registration... They started today at noon-eastern (11AM here in Tennessee).

As of right now, most of my 5e slots are full or nearly full (I expect there will be some movement in the seventy nine days between now and the con). This includes the special for 5e and the Rhym game on Sunday Morning.

In a sharp contrast, my Pathfinder games still has available tickets right now, but I'm not worried.

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

For those of you who have been following this blog, you know that I have been working with JD Conrad at putting the finishing touches to Rhym. Well the wait is FINALLY OVER!

I can finally announce that the Rhym Campaign setting for 5th Edition is finally released! This new setting presents new twists on familiar tropes in a setting that is consistent yet open, simple yet complex, and familiar yet different.

Consistent Rhym is a land of history where empire rose and fell over the course of its long history. Empires are expansive through either mercantile, military, or servile means, while others are being invaded or strong enough to keep to themselves.

Open Rhym was designed to provide you with enough information to capture the spirit of our thought, yet allow you to leave your own mark upon the world. Rhym needs heroes and adventurers to change it. For better or worse is up to you.

Familiar Humans form the largest concentrated population and the core of the cultures of Rhym. The core races (dwarves, elves, orcs, goblins, etc) are all present on Rhym. There is a pantheon of gods representing simple concepts of the world.

Different Two rings (the Bridge of Heaven and the River of Stars) that dominate the sky day and night, bathing the land in a soft glow day and night. Known races are given interesting twist: the mountain dwarves of Kadin-kar are ostracized, outcast and besieged, the elves of Mythrym segregate themselve from lesser races, the drow dominate the realms below, the Deep Realms guided by a divine prophetess, the half-breed of Zhakur serve as mercenaries.

Simple The dragons used to control the world until their empire was overthrown, their empire is now but a shell of what it was as their former slaves rose against them and established kingdoms

Complex Although at first Rhym is simple, once you scratch the surface, the interactions between nations are steeped in history and filled with layers of nuances.

A large portion of the book presents the setting itself: its nations, its people, its organizations, its languages, its religions, filling with adventure and campaign ideas.

This book includes a brand new race: the Darkling. Darklings are half-demonic offspring of drow with fiendish or undead creatures. One of our iconic characters, Nightshade, is of that race and I had a lot of fun running him.

It also includes a number of new options for your class, such as new archetypes, new backgrounds, new feats, and new spells.

You can find the book at either: DriveThruRPG or RPGnow. If you get it now, you will benefit from FOE's 40% off sale!

If you prefer a physical book, well they too are available! You can get them from your choice of Amazon or CreateSpace

Also, for those of you who want to know, YES, Rhym material will be available in the Legacies Organized Play campaign.

Monday, May 22, 2017

I got these guys years ago in a random pack. I mean slimes are useful in so many ways... Mostly to beat up your PCs, which I like... I painted them as ocher jelly, yellow mold or some other type of goo. They disgust my daughter most of all, which makes me like the even more!

Wednesday, May 17, 2017

For another year, I will be making the trip north to Indianapolis to participate in Gencon. Like Origins, I will be offering adventures for both 5e and Pathfinder.

You will notice that these adventures, other than the special (The Assar Gambit) are re-plays from Origins. This is on purpose: this summer will be a busy one as I will be travelling with the family to Canada, a major software upgrade at work, and just summer time. I plan on enjoying my time with the kids too. So I opted to limit the amount of writing I would have to do.

For the Service and Reward, this series of short 2h adventures may very well have some new material for the con, all of them falling under that S&R umbrella.

The Sorrowful Lady has been a work in progress for month, starting with a very simple adventure to something of a major story arc. My biggest issue is keeping it small. It is such a wellspring of inspiration that I have to remind myself to stay focused on the current plot and task.

Tuesday, May 16, 2017

The final of the original ArcadiaQuest, Nina the crossbowwoman. I will be honest and she is not as exciting as some of the others. In fact, she is rather plain as a model: fully armored with bright red hair. I am ambivalent on her.. the sculpt felt uninspired.

I can't say I'm overly proud of this model... There is nothing that pops about her. This is bad to say but I do not know what I could've done to give her some pop. I did do a three tone work of metal and two for her hair.

Monday, May 15, 2017

The last three origins have been a mixed bag for me. The two years I went to run events for Legacies, were not great. Not great at all, with only a single table out of 8 or 9 slots offered. Not exactly what I planned or wanted. It did get me in, but I really hated it as I felt like I was cheating the system.

Last year, I opted to not run any Legacies and run Arcanis. Although I love to play Arcanis, I discovered that I really hated to run it. I did the best I could to give people a good experience, but I would not put this into my favorite game experience. I fully realize that this has more to do with me than Arcanis or the adventures.

So this time around I had to decide what I wanted to do. I decided to roll the dice and see what would happen. I decided to offer three adventures, the same for Pathfinder and 5th Edition. Conveniently aimed at limiting the amount of work I would have to do.

Once again, I am working with The Gathering, a collection of smaller organized play groups including

One of my not-so-secret goals is to see where the play numbers are going and put my focus there going forward, or if I need to keep both systems going at once...

So here is my current schedule for Saggakar events (I will only be running Saggakar adventures at Origins). Last I checked before their registration system went down, there were only a few open seats left for my games. I can't wait until their system comes back up to see the registration numbers.

Wednesday

1pm-5pm D&D 5e The Sorrowful Lady Blue trees, a merchant-priest, a raccoon, a rebellious house, and a night queen: it is a long way from the Spiderfen Forest. Introduction to the Tyrants of Saggakar. Play a pregen or bring your own Legacies character.

8am-12pm D&D 5e Encounter in the Mists An abandonned fortress in the Mists with a dark secret for you to discover. Introduction to the Tyrants of Saggakar. Play a pregen or bring your own Legacies character.

Thursday

8am-12pm D&D 5e Service and Rewards The ArchDespot wants to conquer her neighbors. First, she must get the cooperation of the Houses. Introduction to the Tyrants of Saggakar. Play a pregen or bring your own Legacies character.

1pm-5pm Pathfinder The Sorrowful Lady Blue trees, a merchant-priest, a raccoon, a rebellious house, and a night queen: it is a long way from the Spiderfen Forest. Introduction to the Tyrants of Saggakar. Play a pregen or bring your own Legacies character.

8am-12pmPathfinder Encounter in the Mists An abandonned fortress in the Mists with a dark secret for you to discover. Introduction to the Tyrants of Saggakar. Play a pregen or bring your own Legacies character.

Friday

8am-12pm Pathfinder Service and Rewards The ArchDespot wants to conquer her neighbors. First, she must get the cooperation of the Houses. Introduction to the Tyrants of Saggakar. Play a pregen or bring your own Legacies character.

Sunday

Sunday, May 14, 2017

Well after a few days and some angst on my end about the rules I had feeling "wonky" and not exciting. The flavor and background was already defined and released with the Pathfinder version which I released earlier this week.

I went back and forth on a few different elements: grant advantage on this or that. But nothing really clicked, it simply felt flat. I just could not see what was needed. You know, the forest for the trees. So I asked my panel of experts (Thanks Loren) and he provided the tightening and perspective I needed to make them exciting for 5e in a way the Pathfinder version added something unique.

So without any more ceremony, this book is now ready to add a new dimension to your 5e campaign. In time for the May big sale!

Continuing the work for Nashcon, here are crossbowmen. I was initially surprised to learn that Cortes' expedition to Tenochtitlan included a large number of crossbowmen. However, this makes a lot of sense in the early 16th century. Crossbows were easier to make than guns. Bolts are easier to make, carry and use than gunpowder and bullets. A crossbow functions in wet conditions and training to use a crossbow quicker and easier than matchlocks.

I did not have a full unit of them, so I completed the unit with an armored knight and a banner man for a twelve-man unit.

This year more mayhem is coming so here is the first batch of warriors: twenty four arquebusiers, that will form four distinct units of warriors for the game. These guys could be used from the War of the Roses through the mid 16th-century.

Friday, May 12, 2017

As this is "Friday of the dead" this dude is perfect! Coming to the end of Will's collection of ArcadiaQuest models... This guy is the Dread King, a massive, hulking beast of a monster. I did a few unique touches on this guy.

First off, the "skin" is a darker shade of sickly putrid green, the result is a surprising odd-tone.

Next, the eyes... The character card had him with dark red eyes with glowing red pupils. I tried a few times to get it right, but the contrast of colors did not pop... so I gave him a very light shade of grey/blue and then he started looking at me. I mean it was creepy. I finished the detailing with him looking and judging me.

Another element was the nails. Here I tried a few things, the guide had them white but doing so would not work. After a few tries, I did something strange: I left them as is and planned to return to them later.

The teeth I painted bright white, enhancing the skull appearance of the face.

Next, I got into the sword. Basic silver-metal work. Then the sword plate I put it gold. The three rivets called to me, so I made them red, the same red as the pupils. That done, I extended the "eyes" down, forming a face of sort. From that moment on, the sword looked odd and dark. I could see in his eyes that this creep approved of the creepiness.

The blade itself had two-tones, with a big central area. I gave it a few wet brushing of the interior with a red and metal with successive colors having more red than metal. As I looked on, I got a second idea... have blood dripping from this central zone onto the ground. The effect is pretty effective, especially the small piece that "overflows" on the side of the base.

By now, the model was done. It was time to return to what I had neglected... the nails (see? see what I did there?) By then an evening had gone by and I came back to the model to finish the job. But really, I could not find which color to put on the nails. Seriously, they looked good as they were, with that dirty brown color... So I left them that way!

That's it. The Dread King was done. He reminds me of a very large version of Zanbar Bone from Ian Livingstone's "City of Thieves". Scary.

Thursday, May 11, 2017

I am please to announce the release of Gostor: Amazon. This is the first book that features only a single, playable race for the Pathfinder RPG (the 5e version is coming soon).

I have been thinking about an adventure that featured amazons, and an amazon culture way back in 2009-10, when I worked on the now-defunct Akos project. For years, this project just lingered in there as I tried to resolve one big question: Why would a group of women become complete recluse and do so for a long time. Finally inspiration struck and I began to put notes into a document that spent even more time on the back-burner as I worked on other projects.

With the Rhym project coming to a close, I got a few hours to put into this and spent quite a few evenings expanding the book. I got my good friend Jen-M (who wrote some of Legacies' best adventures) to provide me with her perspective. I also contacted a new artist, Daniela to do a few Amazon characters (you can see some of the art above).

So, what is in this book?
- The Amazon: why are they different? how do they live?
- A Playable race: a fully detailed race for the Pathfinder RPG, complete with alternate racial traits
- Three new feats
- Four sample amazons from a lowly scout to a powerful crone.

Wednesday, May 10, 2017

Long, long, long ago, PFS allowed people to level-up characters to play in adventures that were out of scope. Such was the case of "Tomb of the Iron Medusa", an adventure that I remember fondly to this day. Since this was a level 14 adventure, I levelled up Naadhira al-Zawree, my necromancer-prophetess of Rovagug.

At one point in the adventure, the party rescued a group of young ladies that had been taken over by a vampire. Naadhira told them that she would complete their training. The rest of the party did not seem to care, and the story ended there.

A few weeks later, I had to create a new character for myself, and this the idea of Viviana was born. Viviana was one of those young ladies rescued in that dungeons.

I needed a shtick, something that would make her different than Naadhira/The Mistress. But what?

During a random internet search, I happened upon a the bride of Frankenstein and I thought to myself. "Wow, if Victor was good, what would happen to someone under the 'care' of someone like Naadhira." This chain of thought led me down something very dark.

I now had a concept for the character. Now what to do with her? I went through the list and happened upon the sanguine bloodline, an alternate to the undead for sorcerer. Imagine... She would have been bitten by the vampire and only partially turned, explaining the abilities. Naadhira would have been drawn to the poor girl's undead affinity and made even more experiences upon her. To add to her woes, there is little doubt in my mind that she would also force-inductrinate the girl into the cult of Rovagug, the destroyer of worlds.

Viviana was a tragic figure in my mind. Someone who had been abandoned by all. She suffered from odd bouts of Tourettes brought upon by everything so far. Any time people asked her about the Mistress or what happened to her, she would shout "The Mistress is great!". She was a cultist, but not a devout one... She was someone who answered what she thought others wanted her to say. She only fed on blood, never on anything else.

A number of people asked "Why would you be chosen to go on any kind of mission?" A legitimate question, really. The best answer I could come up with that "The Venture Captain who lost at cards last night had to call upon her." Funny perhaps, but something that only reinforced the tragedy that is her life.

So this complex character managed to live all the way to twelfth level and is now retired.

She was an interesting character to explore really. So interesting that when I created my first Adventure Path character, Katja, I chose to make them sisters. Katja is also retired from PFS as she sits on the Irriseni Throne for a hundred years... (Yes).

This past weekend, I headed north into the green rolling hills of Kentucky into Lexington, home of the blue grass where I attended Lexicon, a convention I have been attending for the past few years with constant interest. Last year, it was the place where I first ran 5e in the playtest of Tyrants of Saggakar. This year, I came with some new adventures for Saggakar and Black Sails for Rhym.

Friday was a rainy day as I drove up I-65 and Bluegrass Parkway. Not much to report, until I was almost there when I found myself surrounded by antique cars. I mean cars from the 1910-20s. I chuckled as I thought I might've stumbled upon a gathering of overzealous Call of Cthulhu LARPers. It only got "worse" as I entered the parking lot of the convention. It seems there was an antique car convention going on at the same time.

I got in and walked around a little re-familiarizing myself with the con. I said hello to Chad and other people I hadn't seen in a while: Holly, Heather, Rick, and others.

I signed up to play Shadowrun that night. We played an April Fool's scenario based on a bunch of unique, interesting movie clichés that kept us chuckling throughout the evening.

The first Saturday slot, I was scheduled to run "Service and Rewards", a new pair of two-hour adventures that played into the current storyline. However, I did not have anyone signed up. So I looked at my options and decided I would hop on a table of The Hidden Shrine of Tomoachan from the Tales from the Yawning Portal, the most recent set of adventures for 5e/Adventurer's League. We had a good party composed of a half-orc, three dwarf and me, an inbred yokul with a great love of moonshine. We breezed through very quickly and almost completed the adventure in one four-hour slot.

I must say these adventures (I also played part of The Sunless Citadel) and their classic feel is a breath of fresh air. I could not imagine running such an adventure using Pathfinder. It would be a mess!

The second slot, I ran a special, "The Battle of Dreadkeep". The result and epilogue of this battle will be added to the campaign narratives. I did not take it easy on the guys. Quite the opposite! We saw some anuka-on-anuka loving, openly and in public, to the horror of all involved. There was a lot of questioning about what my massive drum did and it worried them so much that they charged it, and burned it as other party members were getting beated up. The guys scored many victory points, giving them a victory against my horde of barbarians.

In the end, they won (to my and everyone's surprise).

I played more Adventurer's League in the evening.

Sunday morning, I ran Black Sails for Rhym. That adventure is really fun and has a lot "Yarrr"s.

My con over, I hoped back into the car, driving home to Nashville. On the road, I put the Nashville-St.Louis hockey game through my phone into the car stereo and I listened to the Predators eliminate the Blues. I was the one guy on I-24 honking my horn and waving my hand in the air chanting "Let's go Preds!"

Now it will shock some of you that I am not posting about my beloved Montreal Canadiens, but they were eliminated in the previous round. So now I root for the Preds in the West and the Ottawa Senators in the East! Preds-Sens for the Stanley Cup!!!

Now... let's go over the good, the bad, the ugly.

The Good - A really fun crowd From my tables of 5e, Pathfinder, or Shadowrun, the games brought a constant series of smiles to my face, with players willing to put up with my antics: both as a player and as a GM.
- The Venue Let's be honest, it's a large open room, so it gets loud. However, even on Saturday evening, when Chad ran a PFS special, the noise level was manageable.
- Larry Larry-E was the first-time RPG coordinator. We got into something of a snafu with my slots which forced me to shuffle my events. Nowt that was a pain. However, Larry stayed in touch, and the communication kept going and in the end, things went through and were a success.

The Improvable - Attendance A common complaint, one that was acknowledge. With the con being the same day as the Kentucky Derby, some sixty miles to the West in Louisville, many people did not attend, instead participating in derby-events. Next year, they do plan to return to their regular weekend, two weeks after Conglomeration. So this problem is addressed already.
- Freezing AC Now having cold air in a gaming hall is usually a good thing as it keeps the gamer funk to a minimum (full disclosure, I did not experience any funky gamers). However, that thing started and turned the hall into a frozen hellhole. I mean it got so cold on Saturday evening that I took a table cloth to use as a cloak/blanket.

The Conclusion: Lexicon delivered a good, fun experience. One I want to have again! So I'm going back in 2018!

Thursday, May 4, 2017

Today, I am posting a few small pieces today. They include a large japanese-style drum. It was scratch-built using an old pill bottle, paper, and a little bit of balsa wood.

The next two pieces are punishment pieces: The first one is a punished bandit, ideal for my Tyrants of Saggakar events. The lizardfolk I got in the trade I did with John (for a painting of his Kurzog's throne).

The second piece is a simple gallows. Usable in almost every situation...

Tuesday, May 2, 2017

This coming month of May is my birthday and I want to celebrate big time. I've been thinking of a number of things, but in the end, I decided that I would run a major sale of EVERYTHING in the FOE catalog, including the new releases (I have a number of adventures ready to roll out, along with some GOSTOR surprises).

Everything will be for sale 40% off through DriveThruRPG from May 4th through the 31st! With a special on-day madness on Monday the 15th! So keep posted here, the big sale is coming!

Monday, May 1, 2017

This past weekend, ActionMan and I headed to Chattanooga for the first ever Chattanooga Tabletop Game Fest (CTGF). This time, we planned to play two Adventure League events, for higher levels (ActionMan is level 5 and I was level 7). My original plan had us take the girls too, but they decided not to attend earlier in the week. So it was gonna be a boy's day out!

The day started really early (6:30AM) with me and the boy getting on the road. The miles flew by quickly as ActionMan continued to sleep. By the time we stopped for a quick pit stop for gas and McDonald's, he was awake and ready to rock.

We got there quite early - not a bad thing - and we were able to set up and get ready to play.

Our first adventure, Herald of the Moon, went well. Seriously, the MVP was clearly ActionMan who kicked so much butt that those poor bad guys thought about packing up and giving up. Using his smiting ability, rolling crits dealing well into the 50+ points of damage per hit.

During the break, we visited a restaurant for which I cursed and thanked the people of our table. We visited a little place called Bea's Restaurant. It was (literally) just down the road from CTGF. They serve southern cooking family-style: fried chicken, chicken and dumplings, pinto beans, baked beans, potatoes, coleslaw, BBQ pork, to name a few. I tried to sample a little of each but it was too much. I pigged out. So did the boy. We did not eat any rolls or cornbread. But the star of the meal was the strawberry cobbler at the end. Wow. I mean I was stuffed and annoyed that I didn't have room for more food.

I still dream about those dumplings and that cobbler...

We then made our way back to the Masonic Lodge where the CTGF was held in something of a food overdosing haze... It was so worth it.

This second adventure was the finale of the Ravenloft season, The Dark Lord, where again ActionMan distinguished himself by pummeling the many bad guys. Speaking of this one, while I did not play the whole story line, I was really impressed with the finale.

How it made a fitting finale for the season was great. Not just combat-wise, but the story was really cool tool. Big points for the Adventurer's League. It even made me think of running Curse of Stradh for the kids (and others). Just like I remember playing I6 Ravenloft with my GM, Louis-G back in high school.

Way back in 1986...

The Good

While ActionMan did not really see any of the return trip, as he fell asleep as soon as he sat down in the car. So I drove the 100 miles home alone, listening to the radio and to music on the phone.

There are a number of good things about it:

- There were many games offered and more than what was planned happened.

- Friendly folk at the table.

- Many games available at once

- The venue was an old masonic lodge. I mean, this was a very old building, likely one that dated back well over 70 years: the bathroom plumbing was something that was added after the original creation. Cool. Potentially creepy. Made me think of my old high school (which was build in the 19th century and extended in the 50s).

The Improvables

- There was a definite air of chaos in the room. Perhaps a board or an overall coordinator, instead of an AL coordinator, a PFS coordinator, and every other GM standing on their own.

- The main room got really loud, especially when they held a huge werewolf game in the middle of the room and that GM was loud

- Note to self: do not bid on items I kinda want during silent auctions... Yeah, that one's all my fault.

The Conclusion

This was a small event that had only two RPG slots. It had a definite southern feel to it. Which some will get and some won't. I dig it. Mostly.

Well talking with ActionMan on Sunday, he was very excited about the event and wanted to come back. So was I! Next year, I may try and offer a few short game sessions, or I may play again! I have a year to decide!

Father of 3. Avid role player since 1984. Since 2000, I have been writing
role-playing material for events around the world.
I am the owner of FOE (First Ones Entertainment) and lead the Legacies Organized Play campaign. My other interests include history and miniature war-gaming.